The fine Crimean War Naval Brigade V.C. group of four awarded to Seaman James Gorman, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Albion, who was decorated for his gallantry while defending the Right Lancaster Battery at the Battle of Inkermann on 5 November 1854 when, declining the order to withdraw and leave the wounded, he proceeded to mount the defence works banquette and, using the weapons of the disabled who he was protecting, helped repel the Russian advance ‘not trusting any Ivan to get in bayonet range of the wounded’ - his award would be listed in the notable 24 February 1857 issue of the London Gazette containing the first ever awards of the Victoria Cross and his well documented later life confirms him to have been the first Australian resident to hold the V.C.

Victoria Cross, the reverse of the suspension bar inscribed ‘Seaman James Gorman’, the reverse centre of the cross dated ‘5 Nov. 1854.’; Crimea 1854-56, 2 clasps, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Jas. Gorman. Lead. Sean. H.M.S. Albion.) naming officially engraved by Hunt & Roskell as issued to the entire ship’s crew of Albion and delivered on board, 30 December 1855; China 1857-60, 1 clasp, Canton 1857, unnamed as issued; Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue, unnamed as issued, pierced with small ring and silver loop suspension, the three campaign medals fitted with contemporary matching chased silver ribbon buckles, pins removed from the Crimean pair, all contained in an old red leather and gilt tooled case, approx. 145mm x 60mm x 22mm, the lid embossed ‘Rewards for Valour. James Gorman. V.C.’, the interior with gilt tooling and velvet lining, two brass hasp catches, one end section of case missing, the medals with some light contact marks, otherwise very fine or better (4) £200,000-£260,000

V.C. London Gazette 24 February, 1857:
‘Thomas Reeves, Seaman, James Gorman, Seaman and Mark Scholefield, Seaman. At the Battle of Inkermann, 5 November 1854, when the Right Lancaster Battery was attacked, these three seaman mounted the Banquette, and under a heavy fire made use of the disabled soldiers’ muskets, which were loaded for them by others under the parapet. They are the survivors of five who performed the above action. (Letter from Sir S. Lushington, 7th June, 1856)’

Note: The Victoria Crosses awarded to Reeves and Scholefield are both held in the Lord Ashcroft Collection at the Imperial War Museum in London.

James Gorman was born in London, the son of Patrick Gorman, a nurseryman and his wife Ann (née Furlong) who were married at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster on 29 June 1829. Giving his date of birth as 21 August 1834, he was assigned on 2 March 1848 to the training ship H.M.S. Victory, Admiral Nelson’s former flagship, as a Boy Second Class, having been one of the first 200 boys to be accepted as apprentices into the Royal Navy (many years later on his marriage certificate Gorman would state his year of birth as 1835 and his father’s Christian name as James, discrepancies which are not accounted for).

In September 1848 he transferred with 69 other apprentices to the 10 gun brig sloop, H.M.S. Rolla, in which ship the boys were required to cruise in the Channel until declared fit to serve aboard regular naval vessels. Gorman impressed his instructors to the degree that he was retained beyond his allotted time to act as an instructor for the next intake of apprentices, following which he was briefly appointed to H.M.S. Dragon before joining H.M.S. Howe, remaining with her until 12 July 1850. After a short stay in floating barracks, Gorman, now standing 5 feet 2 inches, with blue eyes, light brown hair and a ruddy complexion, joined H.M.S. Albion as a Boy 1st Class on 13 July 1850. Promoted Ordinary Seaman 2nd Class on 13 May 1852, just two months later he was advanced again to Able Seaman and, remaining in Albion, he would serve in this rank during the Crimean War as a member of the Naval Brigade.

The Naval Brigade in the Crimea
Orders for the invasion of the Crimea were received by Lord Raglan on 16 July 1854 and by early November, the allied army, having landed unopposed at Kalamita Bay, 28 miles north of Sebastopol between 14 and 18 September, had already inflicted heavy losses on the Russian Army at the Battle of Alma on 20 September and engaged them once more with indecisive results on the 25 October at Balaklava while continuing to lay siege to the port of Sebastopol.
In the meantime, it had become evident from the lack of Russian naval ambition that the Royal Navy could play a larger role in the campaign and on 17 October a largely unsupported and decidedly unsuccessful naval bombardment of Sebastopol port’s coastal and harbour defences was conducted while in terms of land operations, a Naval Brigade, eventually numbering 2400 sailors, 2000 marines and nearly 160 guns, was formed for shore service.

‘The navy’s main work ashore consisted in supporting the allied artillery pounding the Russian defences or in counter-battery work. Placed under Captain Stephen Lushington, commander of Albion, seconded by Captain William Peel of the Diamond, the Naval Brigade was initially camped on Victoria Ridge, near the Woronzoff Road, just over 2 miles south of Sebastopol harbour. Its first job was simply to employ teams of ‘bluejackets’ to manhandle from the busy harbour of Balaklava the heavy siege guns and ammunition and the timber and materials necessary to construct gun emplacements. The distance was 6-8 miles, depending on the point in the front line and the men worked ceaselessly from 5.30am until after 6.30pm, often under fire. To increase the allies’ firepower ‘before Sebastopol’ heavy guns were removed from the major battleships: the powerful 8-inch guns of Albion and Retribution along with 32- and 68-pounders from Britannia, Agamemnon, Queen, Rodney, Diamond, Trafalgar, Bellerophon, Terrible, Vengeance and London; Beagle landed two of her Lancaster guns. Some ships like the Diamond which provided the first of the naval batteries under Captain Peel and immediately lost twenty 32-pounder guns, were just about stripped of their main armament. For each naval gun, the sailors brought ashore 150 rounds of shot and 30 of common shell and an appropriate supply of gunpowder. It was as Lyons recorded, a ‘Herculean’ task to get all this ordnance and ammunition ashore.’ (The Crimean War at Sea: The Naval Campaigns against Russia 1854-56 by Peter Duckers refers).

The British siege positions before Sebastopol were divided into the ‘Right Attack’ and ‘Left Attack’, either side of the Victoria (or Worontzoff) ravine. The French siege positions lay between the coast near Sebastopol and then joined and secured the British left flank or ‘Left Attack’. Helping to reinforce the British right, the Naval Brigade added to the allied firepower by manning 17 guns in Chapman’s Battery and 7 guns in Gordon’s Battery. Six of the new 68-pounder Lancaster guns were set up in two other batteries on the Victoria Ridge and others were located with other more conventional guns in various positions. The right-hand British flank, however, was ill-defined and vulnerable and presented a tempting target for the Russians.

Inkermann - the ‘soldiers’ battle’
On 5 November 1854, in darkness and through deep mist, the Russians launched a sudden and massive attack on the weak British right, seized the heights of Inkermann and continuing in fog and drizzling rain, set in motion one of the bloodiest and most desperate battles in British military history. William Howard Russell of The Times described the fighting as ‘a series of dreadful deeds of sanguinary hand-to-hand assaults - in glens and valleys, in brushwood glades and remote dells.’ Commanding officers could often see nothing and individual parties of soldiers were required to fight it out for themselves. The British on the right found themselves in the most desperate battle. The fighting was brutal, frenzied and chaotic as wave after wave of Russians attacked with their bayonets only to be shot down by the British or struggle with them ‘hand to hand, foot to foot, muzzle to muzzle, butt-end to butt-end’ as remembered by Captain Wilson of the Coldstream Guards. After a day of fighting in a confused ‘soldiers’ battle’, the Russians were eventually driven off:
‘The battle of Inkerman defies description; every regiment, every group of men bore its own separate part in the confused and doubtful struggle, save when leaders on either side obtained a momentary control over its course by means of reserves which, carrying all before them with their original impetus, soon served but to swell the mêlée. It was a “soldiers’ battle” pure and simple. After many hours of the most desperate fighting the arrival of Bosquet (hitherto contained by a force on the Balaklava ground) confirmed a success won by supreme tenacity against overwhelming odds, and Menshikov sullenly drew off his men, leaving over 12,000 on the field. The allies had lost about 3300 men, of whom more than two-thirds belonged to the small British force on which the strain of the battle fell heaviest.’ (1911 Encyclopædia Britannica refers).

V.C. at the Lancaster Battery
There were 600 of the Naval Brigade who actually took part in the fighting in the field at Inkermann and as many more manning the existing gun batteries, their main contribution during the actual fighting being to defend batteries, strongpoints or redoubts. Initially, many of the brigade were drawn up in reserve behind the notorious Sandbag Battery - ‘the abbatoir’, which was lost and recaptured many times that day during scenes of intense fighting and immense slaughter.
The Right Lancaster Battery, situated on Victoria Ridge was manned by sailors of the Naval Brigade under Lieutenant William Hewitt (H.M.S. Beagle) and comprised three 68-pounders and a Lancaster gun. It had already been subject to a fierce attack by a Russian reconnaissance in force on 26 October and Hewitt’s refusal to abandon and spike his guns on that occasion and his successful defence of the battery would contribute to his own V.C. recommendation in due course. On 5 November at Inkermann, the battery was assailed once more and hand to hand fighting ensued with bodies of the dead and wounded soon piling up. It was in these circumstances then that Gorman together with four other sailors from his ship would distinguish themselves in saving the battery from being overrun and also save many of his wounded comrades from a certain death.
Russell of The Times reported on the determination of five sailors from the Albion who, as the Russians advanced up the Careenage Ravine inflicting heavy casualties on the British, were ordered to withdraw and leave the wounded. They replied that “They wouldn't trust any Ivan getting within bayonet range of the wounded.” The five sailors then mounted the defence works banquette and with the help of the wounded soldiers lying in the trench below them, who were reloading rifles and passing them up, they were able to stand on their own parapet and keep up a continual and rapid rate of firing. The Sydney Morning Herald of 21 October 1882 would later state in Gorman’s obituary:
‘Protecting at the imminent risk of his life the wounded soldiers and sailors at the Lankester Battery on the great day of Inkerman. Three times were the English forced by overwhelming numbers to evacuate this work and the dead and wounded lay in heaps; at length notwithstanding the order to retire, Mr Gorman, with four other brave fellows, stood their ground until reinforcements arrived, and this important post was saved. Many of our wounded soldiers and sailors owe their lives that day to the veteran who has now passed away as the fight of Inkerman was carried on in so relentless a way by the Russians that but few wounded men survived when at the mercy of the enemy’.
Ultimately the Russians retreated but two of these five sailors had been killed, Thomas Geoghegan, who had just returned from being treated for wounds he had received at Sebastopol, and John Woods. Posthumous V.C.s were not granted at that time but the other three would later be fully recognised.
During the week after Inkermann, Gorman distinguished himself again, The Sydney Morning Herald continuing:
‘During the campaign he performed many deeds of bravery, foremost among these may be specially noted - saving the life of the late Admiral (then Captain) Lushington, R.N., when that officer was unhorsed and surrounded by the enemy’.
Gorman is said to have been badly wounded in this latter act of bravery and returned to the Albion on 12 December 1854, remaining on board while Reeves and Scholefield stayed ashore until September 1855. He would remain in Albion until the conclusion of the war, receiving, on her return to Britain, together with the entire crew, his Hunt & Roskell officially engraved Crimea Medal with clasps for Inkermann and Sebastopol, while still aboard on 30 December 1855. He was discharged with ‘Very Good Conduct’ at Fishguard on 5 January 1856.
On the 7 June 1856, James Gorman, Thomas Reeves and Mark Scholefield were recommended by Sir Stephen Lushington to Queen Victoria as being worthy recipients of the Victoria Cross and on the 24 February 1857 their names appeared in the London Gazette amongst the 85 whom the Queen had conferred this very special honour. These being the first Victoria Crosses to be gazetted - all for the Crimea.

Second China War
Leaving Albion in January 1856, Able Seaman Gorman joined H.M.S. Coquette but was transferred to Royal Haslar Hospital on 17 March to receive treatment for rheumatism. On leaving hospital on 2 May he rejoined Coquette but just three weeks later was discharged from the Royal Navy. Within two weeks, however, he re-enlisted as a Chatham Volunteer and joined H.M.S. Elk, seeing service in the East Indies Station and the Second China War. Elk was present at the destruction of the Chinese fleet at Fatshan Creek, 25 May 1857 - 1 June 1857, and Gorman fought with the Naval Brigade at the Battle of Canton, 28 December 1857 - 5 January 1858. In June 1857, during Gorman’s service in China, the Admiralty had despatched his Victoria Cross through the War Office to his ship where it was most likely presented to him by Commander John Fane Charles Hamilton, captain of H.M.S. Elk. Gorman was promoted to the petty officer rank of Captain of the Afterguard on 21 February 1858 and for his services during the Second China War, he was awarded the medal with clasp for Canton.

Later life in Australia
Gorman, remaining in H.M.S. Elk, next saw service on the newly formed Australia Station, docking at Sydney on 31 December 1858 and January 1860 and also at Melbourne in March 1859. Returning to England, he was paid off at Sheerness on 21 August 1860, thus ending his 13 years of service in the Royal Navy, but chose to return to the antipodes, boarding the 755 ton free trader Fairlie at Plymouth, bound for Sydney, Australia, on 7 January 1863.
On arrival, he took up residence on Kent Street, overlooking Darling Harbour and found work as a sail maker. He later moved to a dockside house in Sussex Street and married Marianne (Mary Ann) Jackson on 10 November 1864 at St. Phillip’s Church. A daughter Anne Elizabeth was born 25 September 1865 but the marriage was short-lived as Mary Ann died of a fever in July 1866 at the age of 23 and was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery.
On 17 April 1867, he took up employment as Drill Master and Gunnery Instructor on the Nautical School Ship Vernon. The ship had been established as a means for the education of under privileged children, who would be schooled and also learn a trade. Living on board, in 1869 he was appointed Master at Arms in charge of the lower deck, responsible for the discipline and welfare of the 135 boys on board the Vernon. In 1872 he was advanced to Sail Maker and Officer-in-Charge of the lower deck, and in 1873 received a special mention in Superintendent James Seton Veitch Mein’s annual report, for the skilled nursing of the boys during a Scarlet Fever epidemic. He left the Vernon on 7 June 1878 in the rank of Second Mate and transferred to the Ordnance Department, taking the position of Foreman of the Magazines on Spectacle Island, Parramatta River, Sydney. These were the first official Naval Stores established in Australia, of which the powder magazine, built in 1865, is still in use today. Shortly after moving to Spectacle Island he married Deborah King on 20 July 1881 and set up home with his daughter and new wife in a stone cottage on the island. On 15 October 1882, James Gorman V.C. suffered a severe stroke and died three days later. He was buried with military honours in the Church of England section of Balmain Cemetery (now Pioneers Memorial Park, Leichhardt) on 20 October 1882. A large number of officers of the Grand Lodge of New South Wales also attended at the graveside, Gorman having been initiated into the Leinster Marine Lodge of Australia in Sydney on 12 August 1878.

The real James Gorman V.C.
After the Crimean War another sailor, James Devereux of Southwark, London, claimed that he had joined the Royal Navy using the name James Gorman and had been awarded a Victoria Cross for his gallantry with the Naval Brigade in the Crimea. Indeed, when he died penniless in Southwark in 1889, James ‘Devereux’ Gorman’s obituary appeared in the South London Press citing his Victoria Cross winning deeds. The real James Gorman V.C., who had earlier emigrated to Australia, was never around to contradict his claim and, despite never producing his medals, Devereux’s claim became accepted by successive historians and appeared in numerous respected reference works. In 1947, when a national newspaper asked for information on VC winners, a Mr. J. O. Devereaux of Colchester wrote to say that he was the son of James Devereaux, who had changed his name to Gorman, joined the Navy, and won the VC in the Crimean War. Mr Devereaux said he had the VC and the other medals but there is no record of them ever being seen.
The deception was uncovered in the 1980s largely by Mr Harry Willey, husband of James Gorman’s great granddaughter, together with Mr Anthony Staunton co-editor of the second edition of They Dared Mightily, the story of all the Australian VC winners, Mr John Winton, author of the standard work on naval VCs and Mr Dennis Pillinger, curator of the Lummis VC and GC records of Military Historical Society. The Register of the Victoria Cross now contains the correct details and has removed any reference to Devereux. The situation had been put beyond doubt when the Australian descendants of Seaman James Gorman V.C. came forth with not only a portrait of him wearing his medals but, more importantly, all his medals including the Victoria Cross. In addition, official records show that Gorman’s V.C. winner’s pension was paid to him via the Commandant, Sydney, at least by 1871, and was paid to him every year until 1883, the year after his death, ‘when no payment was made’.
Another Seaman James Gorman served on H.M.S. Woodcock in September 1857 and was wrongly paid the V.C. pension awarded to James Gorman V.C. for two and a half years, having to repay it (thus compounding the confusion). He was imprisoned in Hong Kong in 1859 before being discharged in disgrace.

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